Frontiers in Psychiatry
November 4, 2021
Ricarda Evens, Simon Reiche, Roman M. Marek et al.
16 citations
During the early COVID-19 pandemic, a survey of over 5,000 people across five languages found that among 1,375 who had used psychedelics in 2019 or 2020, 642 (46.6%) continued using them during the pandemic. Usage shifted away from settings outside the home, and motives changed: less curiosity, celebration, or social influence, more boredom. Positively connoted, often pro-social experiences increased, and two thirds of pandemic users said psychedelics helped them cope with the pandemic at least slightly. The changes likely reflect pandemic restrictions and a possible shift toward safer settings and self-selection.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
November 25, 2021
Tomislav Majić, Lasse Brandt, Christiane Montag
3 citations
A 24-year-old high-functioning student with a history of obsessive-compulsive disorder and sporadic recreational ecstasy use developed a complex depersonalization/derealization syndrome, including intermittent time distortions and brief episodes of misidentifying people, after using ecstasy during a stressful period. Obsessive thoughts returned and he experienced his first panic attack. Symptoms fully remitted after 14 months of combined pharmacological treatment and psychotherapy. Months after discontinuing escitalopram, panic attacks recurred and became regular. While MDMA shows promise for treating anxiety disorders in controlled therapy, recreational or self-medicated use may be harmful for individuals with a history of anxiety or dissociative symptoms.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Anna-Lena Bröcker, Tomislav Majić, Christiane Montag
2 citations
Psychotic symptoms are uncommon and non-specific adverse effects of classic psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. They can occur during the acute drug phase, persist into the subacute period, or rarely develop into long-term psychotic illness. The symptoms can be deeply distressing due to rapid changes, unpredictability, and adverse behavioral consequences. Psychedelics have been used as research models for schizophrenia because of phenomenological overlaps, but this "model psychosis" paradigm has been criticized: etiology and psychodynamic background only partially apply.
The International journal on drug policy
April 1, 2022
Antonia Bendau, Leonard Viohl, Moritz Bruno Petzold et al.
During the early COVID-19 pandemic, use of party drugs (stimulants, dissociatives, GHB/GBL) shifted substantially. Among 1,231 users surveyed, 48.0–64.8% ceased or decreased use, 11.9–25.5% maintained, and 23.6–29.1% increased consumption. MDMA/ecstasy showed the strongest decrease; GHB/GBL and dissociatives the highest increase. Price, quality, and supply remained mostly unaffected. Mood-related motivations (e.g., feeling exhilarated or high) were common before and during the pandemic, but social and mood-related reasons declined while coping with boredom rose. 16.4–35.6% found drug use helpful for pandemic-related stressors, which was linked to increased consumption. The findings suggest that users who increased use as a coping strategy may need targeted preventive measures.